Tuesday, November 29, 2016

My
first of I'm sure many forays into the Greece of ancient times was a visit to the National Archaeological
Museum in the centre of Athens.

The
museum was founded in 1829, but its huge collection of artifacts from Greek
antiquity worldwide didn't find a permanent home until more than sixty years later when
the current imposing neo-classical building was opened.

Its
many galleries of marble and stone and bronze and clay and precious metal
artifacts trace the development of Greece - through its arts - from
pre-historic times to the Golden Age of Greece and all the way to the Roman
times.

This
was a real journey of learning for me and a visual delight to be in the
presence of such wonderful and ancient art.

Of
course so much of Greek art was stolen from Greece by the Romans to decorate
their villas and temples - then by the English and other conquering nations
through the ages ( and much of these glorious pieces can be found now in the
museums of London, Paris or New York and the Vatican ... ) - but what I found here in
this museum was in many ways far superior in their "brokenness" to
the shiny perfect statues in the Louvre and the NY Met. Here is just a small
sample of treasures from the Museum ...

goddess Nereid on horseback - 380 BC

gallery ...

youths ...

gallery ...

Isis - AD 120

goddess of wisdom, knowledge and understanding ...

Portrait bust of Antinoos - AD 130

The
Greek youth Antinoos was a favourite of the Roman Emperor Hadrian - but
unfortunately for the youth, he accidentally drowned in the River Nile under mysterious circumstances. After his death was
deified by Hadrian and worshiped as a god and a hero both in the Greek
east and the Latin west.

The story of Athena’s birth comes in
several versions. In the one most commonly cited, Zeus - the king of the gods
of Mount Olympus - lay with Metis - the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom -
but he immediately feared the consequences. It had been prophesied that Metis
would bear children more powerful than the sire, even Zeus himself. So in order
to prevent this, Zeus swallowed Metis. But he was too late: Metis had already
conceived.

Eventually Zeus experienced an
enormous headache; Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon (depending
on the sources examined) cleaved Zeus’ head with the double-headed Minoan axe,
the labrys, and Athena leaped from Zeus’ head, fully grown and armed.

Greek gods are immortal and cannot die
no matter what happened to them – but unfortunately for king Zeus, in the 4th
century AD Roman Emperor Theodosius - a Christian ruler - forcibly seized the
temples of Zeus and thereafter the cult of Zeus was banned. Perhaps he still survives
today in some corner of his kingdom.

grave stele ...

gallery ...

And so after several hours of
wandering, reading, absorbing, imagining, fantasizing and photographing - but with a welcomed lunch break half way through in the
cafeteria - it was time to eventually emerge back out into the reality of a stormy Sunday
afternoon into noisy chaotic wonderful exciting 21st century Athens ...